[BOOK REVIEW] Becoming a Successful Professor: Dreams, Challenges, and Advice (by Young B Choi, Lea Lee)
Becoming a Successful Professor: Dreams, Challenges, and Advice
Author: Young Choi
Young Choi is a passionate artist and writer whose creativity spans poetry, essays, and the delicate art of wooden block engraving. His love for colored pencil drawing and reflective book reviews captures his deep appreciation for life’s subtle beauty, often inspired by his quiet moments in nature. His work invites readers to reconnect with the natural world and the soulful essence of human experience, offering a thoughtful perspective on life’s simple yet profound moments.
[BOOK REVIEW]
This book isn’t just another how-to manual on climbing the academic ladder. Becoming a Successful Professor is a heartful, wise, and quietly powerful collection of lived stories—crafted for anyone who has ever felt out of place in the ivory tower. Co-authors Young B. Choi and Lea Lee gather the voices of 16 Korean and Korean American professors who’ve built meaningful careers in North America, not despite their cultural identities but through them.
Each essay reads like a conversation with someone who’s been there—navigating unfamiliar systems, juggling research and teaching, making mistakes, and finding community. It doesn’t sugarcoat the isolation or the institutional hurdles minority scholars often face. But it also shines with hope, resilience, and deeply practical advice—from managing your first syllabus to sustaining your passion through rejection and doubt.
There’s something beautifully radical in what this book accomplishes. It archives the stories of immigrant and minority professors—voices too often left out of higher education’s official narratives—and gives them the space to breathe, reflect, and guide. In doing so, it becomes more than a guidebook; it’s a cultural record, a toolkit, and a lifeline.
For graduate students, early-career academics, and anyone forging a path where there’s no clear map, this book says: you’re not alone. Your story matters. Your roots are not baggage—they’re ballast.
Published in both English and Korean, the book affirms that you don’t need to shed your language or your identity to belong in academia. You already belong. And if you’ve ever doubted that, let this book remind you—with tenderness and truth—that there’s room for you, just as you are.
By Jeonghwan (Jerry) Choi, PhD, MBA, ME
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